The Rokudaime
by Rhysati
Summary: [companion fic to Old History] 'War and strife shall be your legacy, yet for all that, you shall be loved.' Snapshots of the reign of the Rokudaime Hokage. [revised, ch's 7&8 posted]
1. He Was Smiling

**Disclaimer:** The characters and setting of Naruto belong to Masashi Kishimoto. I am only borrowing for the time. Any characters or plot not found in the series belong to me.

A/N(2): A companion fic to Old History, which should probably be read first in order for this to make sense. I plan for there to be several drabble/one-shots posted in here – essentially snapshots of Sakura's reign. More likely than not, they won't be posted in chronological order, so each will include at the top Sakura's age and the year of her reign it takes place in. I'll also list any additional Japanese vocabulary at the top of each snapshot – there shouldn't be very many per chapter, so I'd rather put it there than at the bottom. And as each will be from a different event, they'll have their own genres listed.

As of this post, the entire story has been edited and revised.

-Rhys

Kleenax Warning!

Sakura's Age: 21

Year of Reign: 5

Genre: Angst

He Was Smiling

Haruno Sakura knew fear, knew pain.

She had trained and lived as a shinobi since she was eight. Her life had been personally threatened more times than she could remember. She had first seen death in its grisly reality when she was twelve, on an incomplete bridge in Nami no Kuni.

She had been witness to Uchiha Sasuke's fall to Orochimaru's cursed seal, and Uzumaki Naruto's plunge into temporary insanity as the Kyuubi was finally fully integrated into its vessel.

She had faced one of Konoha's greatest enemies across a battlefield, all but drained of chakra, staring horrified as his Edo Tensei jutsu summoned four of the greatest shinobi her village had ever produced to do battle with her. She had been pinned to a tree with sand as a prize in a battle between two demons.

She had held her brother with shaking arms as she tried to explain death and why their parents weren't coming home in terms a three-year-old could understand. She had performed a cesarean section on herself and given birth to four sons.

At the age of sixteen they had told her that every member of her genin team was dead, and then taken the mantle of strongest shinobi in the village with every one of her supports knocked out from under her and no one in the world to turn to but a dying village that was desperate for _her_ guidance.

Yes, she knew pain, she knew fear. But never in her life had she been more terrified than she was on that day, standing before the doors to the Konoha General Hospital.

-----

Naruto found his teammate standing amongst the cenotaphs in Memorial Glade, her back to the civilian plaques as she stared dully up at the faces of her predecessors. She held her hands almost absently before her. He didn't think she realized they were trembling.

She was silent for several moments before acknowledging him.

"My brother's blood is on my hands," she whispered.

Naruto flinched.

"He was smiling," she continued hoarsely, not wanting to but needing to speak the words. "It was the first time he was awake since I'd admitted him. I haven't seen those emeralds in a week…He looked at me as I came in, and I put my hand on his chest. And he spoke…he said, 'Looks like I'm gonna be outta here in a few days, huh?'…But I couldn't give him a few days…I didn't have enough time, if only I'd had more time, started sooner…."

She paused to draw a shaky, steadying breath. "He said, 'I wish my window faced the other direction. I want to see them put the finishing touches on your face.' He was smiling…and I stopped his heart…he was smiling, oh, God…"

Naruto wrapped his arms around her as she crumbled, cradling her as she wept and keeping a silent vigil. He knew and hated that there was nothing else he could do while the strongest person he had ever know wept for the only family she had left.

-owari-


	2. Far More Valuable Treasures

A/N(2): revised

Sakura's Age: 16

Year of Reign: hours pre-appointment

Genre: Mystery

Far More Valuable Treasures

"We realize this is abrupt. If you will require additional funds to provide for them-"

"No need," the woman interrupted gently. "Our family is sufficiently endowed. They will be well looked-after. I _am_ a little surprised my cousin looks to me for aid in this, as I make my home outside this village, but I shall strive not to fail the trust that has been given to me."

Pale eyes studied her carefully, measuring and judging. The wan and weary woman stood in the carnage of a once-prosperous inn, now nothing more than a morbid stage for the exchange taking place. She looked like a ghostly specter of death, standing amidst the bodies littering the shattered lobby, some whole, some torn, some broken; friend and foe, villager and visitor, shinobi and civilian alike. In her arms, the woman cradled a tiny, warm blonde bundle as delicately as if she handled the finest spun glass.

But instead of a messenger of death, she was a symbol of hope, entrusted with four young lives just emerged from the womb, to raise and guide and shelter until her cousin called for her and the children once more.

"Have they been named yet?"

Slim shoulders shrugged slightly. "It is our sincere hope that they will remember everything. They should be able to tell you their names within a few months. Until then, call them as you will."

The woman nodded, and finally bent down to place the small child in a carrier alongside another, brunette baby. Straightening, she settled the carrier on her back, then slid a second carrier bearing two more children onto her chest. Securing both firmly to her, she nodded her thanks as the shinobi that had brought the babies to her lifted her travel pack and gestured to the shattered door.

The two made their way if not quickly then swiftly through the smoking wreckage of the once-great village, the shinobi guiding the civilian along paths that would keep them from prying eyes. It took longer to leave than it had to enter, and the woman was winded when they at last reached a massive complex on the outskirts of the village. It too had taken damage and had its share of broken bodies. These had died far more violently than those at the inn or on the streets, and the woman waited just inside the gate as her guide brought a horse, watching the sky or the road so as not to see the crumpled forms that had fallen to keep the village safe.

When her guide returned, the woman removed the carriers and secured them to the saddle, then mounted and allowed the shinobi to lead her around the complex to a gaping wound in the village wall, the one that had fallen to her guide's family to hold.

"The saddlebags are well-stocked with food and medicine, and I've added extra clothes and blankets to your pack," the shinobi explained briefly. "Don't take the main roads until tomorrow, and only after you've had a bath and burned the clothes you're wearing. You smell of blood, and it will draw any shinobi in the region to you like a magnet. Be swift, but not hurried. Once you start on the main roads, make no attempt to hide your journey – you are nothing more than a distraught civilian fleeing battle and wishing only to return to the safety of your home…"

As she listened to the instructions, the shinobi had been backing away from her, and finally faded into the shadows as the woman gathered her wits and courage and urged the horse forward, taking with her far more valuable treasures than she had brought.


	3. I Cannot Hold This Home

A/N(2): revised – I'm _much_ happier with this one.

-Rhys

Sakura's Age: 21

Year of Reign: 5

Genre: Drama

Vocab:

-Gokuni – the Five Countries

-Kyuubi no Jinchuuriki – the human sacrifice of the Nine-Tails

I Cannot Hold This Home

Sakura stood quietly before the window, looking out at the village she loved so much, and her heart ached. Her advisors and teammates were silent behind her, anxiously waiting, and she could feel the relief radiating from them that this decision was ultimately hers to make.

She never wanted to be Hokage – that was Naruto's dream. In the five years following her appointment, she and her village had endured more turmoil than in the reigns of all three of her most recent predecessors combined. The entirety of Gokuni was war-torn, and no end was in sight. Yet for all their sacrifice, her people were content, and she had come to love serving them as their Hokage.

It was times like these that reminded her why she'd never wanted the cursed job in the first place.

She had been silent long enough for Naruto to have begun shifting impatiently. Finally, she turned back to her desk, sat, and announced the decision that would forever define her reign.

"Begin the evacuation; civilians first in caravans of two hundred, each with an escort of thirty-eight shinobi. The Tower records are to be included in the first caravans, as are the hospital patients and records. The elderly leave in the last caravans. No dawdling – grab only what can be carried, and focus on the food and medical supplies. I want the last caravans packed and pulling out by dawn on the third day. Send them to Suna."

Her advisors gaped at her, and Kakashi seemed frozen. "Evacuate?" he finally repeated, voice tight and emotionless. Never a good sign. "Abandon Konoha, after all you just did to put her back together?"

"Abandon the trees and buildings and walls, yes," Sakura confirmed. His face was unreadable, but she knew him well enough to know that he wasn't happy with her decision. It didn't much matter – he'd left it in her hands the moment he'd sworn loyalty to her as Hokage. That didn't mean he couldn't make things difficult. She ground her teeth in exasperation. They didn't have time for this!

"God dammit, Kakashi, look at the numbers! _Ten thousand_ shinobi, ninety-one percent of them of unknown origin, moving fast enough that they'll be here in three days, yet quietly enough that the _only_ reason we found them was because you quite literally stumbled over their outlying scouts.

"I have _exactly_ two thousand and eleven shinobi, most of whose training was rushed, in addition to nearly ten and a half thousand civilians to defend. They may not be as defenseless as they were before the Siege, but that doesn't mean what training they may have will help them against a force we essentially know nothing about. It's not enough. I _cannot_ hold this village, and I'm not going to waist precious lives trying to hang on to a hopeless cause!

"My duty it to my people, first and foremost, and that's not just the people of Konoha. I'm sworn to serve and defend Hi no Kuni in the service of the daimyo, and if I let my shinobi be wiped out, I'll have no way to discharge my duty to my liege lord. I cannot hold this home, but I can save its heart."

She ground her teeth, frustrated and angry that Kakashi didn't seem to understand it was as hard for her to order it as it was for him to obey. "I will get my people out, and I will blow this city to hell before I let them keep what I must let them take from me."

Her advisors and her sensei looked startled, but the former for a far more valid and suspicious reason. They probably knew she was planning, and realized that she had meant her words literally. Naruto, on the other hand, looked utterly betrayed, and she drew in a deep, steadying breath as she prepared to argue her point yet again.

It was therefore to her complete surprise that he also drew a steadying breath, visibly stilled himself, and then dipped into a deep, formal bow more suited to greeting a foreign daimyo, only ever used in Konoha when the Hokage was delivering judgment on one of his or her own. "You are Rokudaime," he said tersely, his voice strained, his language formal. "You are the pillar of this village. In your judgment I placed my trust when I swore fealty to you, and I never break a vow. If, in your considered judgment, you think we cannot remain here and live, I will abide by your decision. Only tell me what I must do to ensure the safety of our people."

The kunoichi doubted she was the only one utterly by Naruto'words. A knot of tension in her gut undid itself, and she felt her alter ego grinning tiredly as she realized that even a mere three months of marriage to Hyuuga (now Uzumaki) Hinata had wrought such a change in his maturity. Yet another, greater knot eased as any doubt she'd had about the suitability of the Kyuubi no Jinchuuriki as her successor faded. Her people would be in good hands with him to lead and guard them – likely better than hers.

Until her death or the end of the wars, however, Sakura was their guide and guard, and she drew strength from Naruto's unwavering faith as she prepared to discharge her duties.

Afterwards, she slumped in her seat as her advisors, teammate, and former sensei filed out of the office to carry out her orders, and prayed she hadn't just made the biggest mistake of her life.

-owari-


	4. Appointment

A/N(2): Well, it's been revised. Still not as happy as I would like, but it's much better than it was. Kami-sama, I love English-major betas (or at least betas who _should_ be betas). Please enjoy this new version.

-Rhys

Sakura's Age: 16

Year of Reign: 1

Genre: Drama

Vocab:

-Oto – Sound

-Tsuinin – ratification/confirmation

Appointment

Utatane Koharu struggled to regain her breath as the shinobi began trickling in, some alone, others in groups, none unscathed. Homura, sitting beside her, was as weakened as she, nursing a fatal gut wound. He wouldn't survive until nightfall. When their genin team had first been placed under the Nidaime's charge, she had never dreamed that she'd be the last of the three to die.

Koharu felt her hope slowly dwindling as the shinobi finally stopped coming in. The future their numbers painted was bleak indeed, if this was all they would have to work with. So many were not there... Where was Raidou, and Kurenai, Tobitake Tonbo and Tatami Iwashi? Where were the rest of the ANBU members, where were the Inuzuka? Too many were gone, too many had died.

Homura straightened with a grunt, and pulled on her sleeve. "Look," he groaned, and lifted a wavering hand to point at the door. Koharu followed with her eyes, and felt her jaw drop.

Their numbers reduced – Rock Lee was conspicuous in his absence, there was no sign of Kiba or the giant Akamaru, and the loudmouthed Kyuubi vessel was no where to be seen – the Rookie Nine and Team Gai had just entered, most of them as beaten as the rest of the room. Akimichi Chouji looked dazed – the back of his head was half-caved in – and his hitai-ate and right arm below the elbow were missing. Yamanaka Ino's head had been shaved, the edge doing the shaving taking some of the scalp with it, and her right arm dangled uselessly at her side. But she could keep her feet, and lent her left arm to Hinata.

The young Hyuuga limped beside her, the victim of a brutal beating that had left her bruised and broken from head to toe with the sole exception of her legs. With both eyes blackened and drifting, she relied on the taller woman to lead her to a seat. Aburame Shino's coat was missing, displaying the thousands of kikai bugs swarming over, under, and through his skin as they mended his wounds and set him to rights. Tenten's flesh had been shredded by what seemed to have been an acid-coated whip, and her shattered legs meant that she be carried in by her remaining teammate.

But it was not their wounds that had every ninja in the room gaping at them. It was the three remaining 'Rookies.'

Hyuuga Neji's hair had been raggedly cropped to ear length; his hitai-ate dangled around his neck. He looked like he was about to collapse from exhaustion, though his arms were clinging tightly to his crippled teammate, but he was untouched; the blood soaking his clothes belonged to Tenten.

Nara Shikamaru's clothes had been shredded and the skin revealed showed minor bruising, but he too was otherwise unmarked, and hovered over his teammates as they found seats in the back.

Haruno Sakura was pale, drawn, and gaunt, but though her tattered clothes had been dyed blood-red, she was uninjured – most likely due to her own miraculous healing abilities. She was trailed by a Hyuuga Hanabi that nursed broken ribs and cradled a splinted left arm to her chest, blood splattered over her trembling form. Koharu absently suspected that she'd already been tended to by the medic-nin.

The room was silent as the chuunins and jounin settled themselves in the – compared to the rest of the village – undamaged conference room, and remained so until Koharu cleared her throat loudly, still trying to catch her breath. She smiled grimly when it took several seconds for the shinobi to tear their gazes away from the unbelievably unscathed Rookies and give her their attention.

"I'm not going to mince words," she croaked hoarsely, her punctured lung protesting. "Regardless of the fact that we chased them off, this is the most crushing defeat we've ever suffered. I count a hundred and twenty-one people in this room, including myself. I've no earthly idea what the civilian numbers are like, but I think they're worse – Oto showed no mercy whatsoever.

"This isn't like last time, people, and we can't afford to wait a couple of weeks for Jiraiya to bring us a Sannin for our Hokage – as far as I know, there _are_ no more Sannin, for one. Unless there are still stragglers out there, we are it. There's no way we can begin to pull ourselves back together without someone in the hot seat, and we need to pick that someone _now_."

Sarutobi Asuma, as beaten and bloody as most of the rest of the room, raised his twisted hand briefly. "If I may make a suggestion? We need someone the civilians can have faith in, someone who can give a strong image to our enemies and allies alike."

Koharu suspected she knew where he was headed, and didn't blame him in the least. "We'll also need someone who has enough smarts to see us through this."

"Not to mention someone who didn't get pounded bad enough that they'll be spending their days in the hospital rather than the Tower, where we're gonna need them," grunted a badly burned chuunin near the back.

The three Rookies were growing wary, and the Sandaime's teammate chuckled mentally. "So. Someone who's not easily beaten, has brains, and is relatively strong, with preference to someone who isn't currently in bad shape. Now is the time to make your nominations, if you have one. We'll do this open-session."

Asuma's hand rose again. She nodded to him, and he smirked painfully. "I nominate Haruno Sakura."

The medic twitched, blinking rapidly. "Say again?"

Koharu ignored her, instead nodding at another jounin across the room. "Yes, Tsuinin-san?"

"I'll second the nomination."

Sakura's face clearly asked 'Are you braindead?' "Why?" she demanded.

The jounin tilted his head gently. "Nara-san is brainier than you are, yes, but though he gets the job done, he's also one of the laziest people I've ever seen. Hyuuga-san is a genius as a ninja, not as a leader. You're brilliant; you've been trained by _Sharingan_ no Kakashi _and_ a Sannin, who herself was no less than the Hokage; you're able to prioritize and delegate; and you generally show all the signs of a capable leader – you've simply never been put in a position requiring those skills before."

She looked taken aback at such a complementary judgment of her abilities from a jounin she'd never met before. "I'm sixteen," she pointed out.

"At this point," Homura grunted, hand wrapped tightly around his abdomen, "age isn't a factor. And by the time it is, you'll be old enough for it not to matter. Most of our survivors, from what I saw, are either very old or very young, so if someone does challenge you, they'll either be in the same boat or have death by old age hanging over their shoulder, and any support they may be able to raise won't be enough to get past the shinobis' solid support of _you_."

"I'm flattered that you think me capable, really I am. But I have to disagree. I have no desire for the job whatsoever, and it wouldn't be fair to subject the village to that after everything it's been through. I'd much rather give the position to Naruto – he's the one that's been aiming for it ever since he knew what it was."

"And were he here, we'd offer it to him, Kyuubi or no," Koharu said firmly. "But he's not. In case you misunderstood, Haruno-sama," Sakura blinked at the formal address, "we're all that's left – anyone who's not here by now is most likely dead. And that includes Uzumaki Naruto _and_ Hatake-san as well."

Sakura looked startled, and scanned the room quickly. She found no sign of Kakashi's silver hair – hadn't she known he'd not been there? Koharu winced inwardly when she saw the pink-haired girl gulp quietly. If she hadn't been lonely before, she certainly was now, and the old kunoichi mentally noted to appoint advisors who would also be or were already friends. She would need all the support she could get.

She licked her lips. "I'm only a chunnin-" she began, but stopped when she saw Homura shake his head.

"It's not a factor – legally, we'd be able to appoint a genin Hokage, though we'd have to have some incredible support from the civilians and shinobi alike to swing it. At the moment, the only thing standing in the way of your appointment is your own objection."

He broke off his explanation and coughed harshly, blood spewing from his lips. Sakura tensed and moved to assist him, but he waved her off. "Don't waste your strength – I won't make it through the night. We need to settle this issue now, Haruno-sama, so we can begin to rebuild without worrying about who will lead us. You've been nominated and seconded, no one save you has protested, and I will almost guarantee that any show of hands will give you a unanimous vote."

The pink-haired kunoichi worried at her lip, and glanced around the room with a gaze that was likely more calculating than she realized. Koharu could almost see the powerful brain behind those startling emerald orbs turning over factors and likely reactions, churning out possibilities and alternatives, playing devil's advocate with herself. "May I have a show in any case?"

It was a last, desperate move that she had to know wouldn't change the situation – Koharu could see the resignation in her eyes. Nonetheless, she humored the reluctant nominee and motioned for the gathered shinobi to do as she requested.

Homura smirked when every hand in the room except Sakura's went up.

Sakura smiled resignedly when the female advisor cocked an eyebrow at her. "It's unanimous, Haruno-sama. Allow me to complete the formalities. Haruno Sakura, would you please honor us by serving as our Hokage?"

Sakura glanced a final time around the room, smiled weakly at the tired amusement in her fellows' faces, took one last breath of freedom, and nodded.

"Very well," Haruno Sakura, Rokudaime Hokage no Konohagakure no Sato, said, determination bright in her gemstone-hard eyes. "I will do all in my power to serve this village, even should it claim my life."

-owari-


	5. In the Blink of an Eye

A/N(2): Edited and reposted. I'm much happier with it now.

This particular snippet is semi-sorta illustrated by yours truly, and the picture(s) are now up on my deviantart gallery! The link's in my profile, and if you look in the gallery itself you'll find some more pictures for Old History and The Rokudaime.

Anyway.

Until the next bit!

-Rhys

Sakura's Age: 27

Year of Reign: 11

Genre: General/Contemplative

In the Blink of an Eye

(The Smell of Copper)

For all accounts and purposes, Tanaka Moegi's childhood passed within the blink of an eye.

It was unsurprising, really, having grown up in a household of ninja and having two best friends that were third-generation shinobi. She had been introduced to concepts such as predicting flight trajectories for shuriken in varying conditions at the same time as she'd begun learning how to read and write kanji. She had grown immune to members of her family returning in varying states injury, oftentimes reeking of the smell of copper. When her brother, Yasuo, came home utterly drenched in copper-smelling fluid, she'd been only slightly dismayed. When he hadn't returned at all, she had wept, remembered, and then entered the Academy and left her childhood behind.

For all accounts and purposes, Tanaka Moegi's student life passed within the blink of an eye.

She entered the Academy early at the age of six. Not because she wished to graduate early, but because she wanted the time to learn it correctly, and be able to do it _right_, well enough that the smell of copper might leave her. So she spent a full six years taking every class available, mastering each, and graduating with her two best friends as the number one rookie of their year. They had been placed on a team under Ebisu-sensei, although not on her merit, but on Konohamaru's as the Sandaime's grandson. They had studied under him for less than a year when the Second Siege reshaped their lives, and all three had made chuunin on Moegi's thirteenth birthday. Not even the Rookie Nine could claim that.

For accounts and purposes, Tanaka Moegi's years on the field passed with in the blink of an eye.

As a student of Ebisu-sensei and a teammate of Yamagata Konohamaru, it was no surprise she specialized in stealth and reconnaissance. The Rokudaime often used her for last minute positioning and maneuvering during her war campaigns. The smell of copper seeped into her bones. But an unanticipated lull on the war front came about during the Hokage's nineteenth year, and Moegi had been reassigned to Konoha, and the Academy.

For all accounts and purposes, Moegi's teaching years passed within the blink of an eye.

Haruno-sama had once made the comment that Moegi was her generation's Umino Iruka at the Academy. She had stuttered and blushed, honored at the undeserved compliment, but it wasn't until Naruto-sama, Iruka-sensei's foster son, had echoed the comment that she really thought considered it, and began to understand why she loved to teach. It was not that she wished to emulate Iruka-sensei. Rather, she immersed herself in giving her students every scrap of knowledge and hard-earned wisdom she possessed. She wanted them to live long enough and _well_ enough that they could teach her what it was like to be a child, to be a student, to forget the smell of copper.

She made headmaster at the age of seventeen, and felt ancient compared to students only five years younger than her. The evacuation came mere months later, and reinstatement as a teacher at Suna's Academy shortly after. There she had been both student and teacher, learning the techniques and talents of the Wind that she might pass both on to her students.

And now as she stood before her beloved Hokage and accepted to her offer of promotion into the ranks of jounin, she could only wish she did not tremble in fear of the years to come, and hope that the rest of her life would not pass in the blink of an eye.

She was tired of the smell of copper.

-owari-


	6. Seals

A/N: Forgive the long wait. I've been brainstorming for War and Strife, as well as plotting various background information, and let Rokudaime slip by the wayside. Check my lj for updates, as well as my deviantart account for some illustrations.

Please enjoy!

-rhys

Sakura's Age: 16

Year of Reign: 1

Genre: Spiritual (?) (hopeful)

Vocab:

-Tora – Tiger

-Saru – Monkey

-Inoishi – Boar

-Uma – Horse

-Nezumi – Rat

-Tatsu – Dragon

-Oto-nin – Sound ninja

Seals

_Tora._ _Strength._

The civilians had been decimated. The attack was so sudden; they had no time to flee to the monument. The village had grown so large, though, that they would not all fit anyway.

_Saru._ _Versatility._

The shinobi had been demolished. One hundred twenty-three ninja left in the entire village by the time the last Oto-nin had fled. Beyond that, their faith in the upper echelons of their village had been shattered.

_Inoishi._ _Longevity_.

The ANBU, long regarded as Konoha's elite, the bogeymen, the ultimate, infallible guardians of the Hokage and the village, were traitors. With one singular exception, they had turned their backs on their Hokage, their village, and their honor, and attempted to uproot the great tree of Konoha.

_Uma._ _Stability_.

The village was dying. There weren't enough medics, and those that had survived were just as wounded and shell-shocked as their patients. They were dying now from simple things; illness whose cure could not be found in the rubble that had once been the Konoha General Hospital; infections setting into wounds that weren't able to see even a civilian doctor in time.

_Nezumi._ _Cohesiveness._

The medics were drained. Hope was nonexistent. And the one to whom the village looked for strength, guidance, salvation, hope, was sinking into despair and loss, having no one to guide or support her in turn. Everyone had lost someone. She had lost everyone.

_Tatsu._ _Power_.

The civilians had no strength to give. The shinobi had no faith to give. The ANBU had no honor to give. The medics had no healing to give. The Hokage had no guidance to give.

All they could do was pray for a miracle.

_"Konoha Higi: Kuunohaka!"_

-owari-


	7. False Faith

A/N: Sorry this took so long - most of what I've been working on lately is plotting and back-story (plus artwork).

Question (actually, I already asked this on my lj, but I wanted to throw it out here, too): Does anyone have any ideas for a cover picture(s) for War and Strife/Old History/Rokudaime? I was wondering maybe the kanji for six (or go full out and put Sixth Hokage) in the background and an older Sakura in the foreground, but I'm open to suggestions. Another thought is the kanji in the foreground and the Hokage Monument with all six on it in the background…Any thoughts?

_Note: "False Faith," "Then There Was One" (forthcoming), and "To Leave a Legacy" are all directly related. "False Faith" is first, "Then There was One" almost immediately after, and "To Leave a Legacy" takes place about a week and a half later, after Sakura and the surviving medics had cast Konoha Higi: Kuunohaka._

_-((In regards to that, I've changed Ikione no Jutsu to the aforementioned; it means "Konoha Secret Technique: Empty Grave." "Seals" has been changed to reflect this))- _

And finally, the answer to the ultimate question...what's going on with the ANBU? Well, at least the first part...

-rhys

Sakura's Age: 16

Year of Reign: second day

Genre: angst, action

Vocab:

-Kiri-nin - Mist ninja

-Mizu no Kuni - Water Country

-_Tsuuga -_ Inuzuka Kiba's signature attack

False Faith

Smoke still rose from the ruins of the village behind them as Sakura and her ANBU guard moved through the outskirts in search of survivors. So far, there hadn't been many, and they'd already been at if for most of the day.

She'd kept her eyes pealed, but even after seventeen hours of search and rescue, she hadn't seen any sign of the missing Rookie Nine members. No Kiba, no Naruto, no Kakashi-

Well, scratch that.

Sakura came to a jerky half in the blood-soaked clearing, blank eyes tiredly tracing over the distinctive trenches of various _Tsuuga_ incarnations. She didn't bother to wrinkle her nose as the acidic stench of dog urine reached it, instead feeling oddly listless and detached as she surveyed the site of one of her dearest comrades' last stand. Not even desperate, foolish hope could deceive her, even for a moment, that the crumbled corpse on the far side of the clearing still had life left in it, and so there was no crushing disappointment or despair when she finally moved to kneel at his side and place two confirming fingers alongside his neck.

She felt oddly cheated.

His face was scrunched in an expression of anguish it seemed not even death had eased, horrified eyes still locked on the shattered, bleeding wreck of a thing that had once been his lifelong companion. Sakura slid her hand gently over his eyes and coaxed the lids shut, then spent a few precious ounces of chakra to bind them closed. That much dignity at least she could give him.

She tried not to think of how the ANBU at her back would pick his body apart to eliminate any traces of Konoha's secrets before finally incinerating what remained to be swept into a small ceramic urn and carried back to the village proper where it would be buried with all the others.

To distract herself, she turned aside to examine the enormous red dog lying mere feet beyond the reach of his master's outstretched hand. She rested her own hand on his matted fur, and nearly flinched when it _squelched_. His coat had been dyed red not with chakra as she'd first suspected, but with blood. Lips pursed, she wiped her palm clean on her medic skirt before cupping it gently around the dog's nose.

Her eyes flew wide and her heart fluttered with weak hope when she felt the faintest of damp breezes. He was still breathing! He was alive!

Sakura didn't know what instinct warned her, but she thanked whatever god cared that it had, because it had her leaping upwards just barely in time to (mostly) avoid the four katana that would have skewered her like so much dango had she been a fraction of an instant slower. As it was, they carved deep gouges in her legs that seriously impaired her ability to not only move at speed but also mold chakra, as exhausted and drained as she was.

Who in the hell was attacking her here and now, of all times and places, and how could they possibly have gotten past four elite ANBU without alerting her in the slightest?

A detached portion of her brain was distantly amused to discover that she was still capable of shock when she glanced down to identify her assailants to and found four bone-white masks staring up at her.

By the time she tumbled to the ground on the far side of the massive ninken and rolled gracelessly back to her shaky feet, only one thought was running through her mind.

This would not end well.

With a distinctive and memorably scarred face and a naturally blunt personality, Namiashi Raidou was not your ideal spy. Nevertheless, he'd spent the last two months in Mizu no Kuni passing himself off as exactly that, and his fumbling and bumbling antics (which had clearly amused the locals authorities but were in fact his honest attempts at spying) had successfully drawn any and all attention from the visiting gypsy girl who was the real spy. It helped that the Kiri-nin in charge of sniffing out spies thought so little of Konoha that he truly believed a spy as clearly incapable as Raidou had proven to be was simply the best his village could manage to produce.

Raidou had been sent in two weeks ahead of the actual mission, where he'd set up shop and proceeded to entertain the locals with his attempts at being a stealthy, cunning spy. By the time the kunoichi who would be doing the real legwork had arrived, the entire village was keeping track of ever humorous move of the amateur spy and the half-bemused, half-aggravated shinobi who was half-heartedly trying to A) find out why he was there, and B) get rid of him.

Not all of his antics had been an act – in fact, most of them weren't. He just hadn't been trying as hard as he could have, and the information he'd cheerfully proceeded to unearth was not only useless to anyone outside the village, but also completely unrelated to the kunoichi's mission. She spent four weeks finding out what she needed while Raidou continued to lead the local authorities on a wild goose chase, then slipped out as quietly as she'd slipped in. He spent another week and a half winding down his own operation then finally let the Kiri-nin "drive" him out. A simple mission, all told, particularly compared to the sort of missions he usually ran.

His eyes narrowed at that last thought, and he pushed off a tree branch with a little more force that was strictly necessary. He scolded himself silently and made himself relax, but there was no escaping the thoughts that had plagued him distantly for nearly three years, and far more directly for three months.

Raidou couldn't even begin to guess why, but the Godaime had begun cycling the more reliable (as far as he was concerned, at least) members of ANBU out of the unit as soon as three years after her inauguration. Raidou had been one of the more recent to leave, little though he'd wanted. The Godaime hadn't been inclined to debate her decision, unfortunately. She'd also begun accepting a greater number of S-rank, death-likely missions. ANBU usually got those missions, yes, but a wise Hokage tried _not_ to accept so many that the unit's numbers had been reduced by almost a third, particularly not when the same Hokage had, for reasons known only to herself, chosen not to bring in any replacements. And for all her faults, Namiashi Raidou was not prepared to call Souma Tsunade a fool.

Cue suspicion.

It was with these thoughts in mind that Raidou topped a final rise and confirmed that the smoke he'd been eying uneasily for the last ten miles was, in fact, coming from Konoha. He snarled a curse and was about to spring forward when the stench of blood and death both old and new drifted past his nostrils, and he quickly changed the direction of his lunge. He'd barely survived the _last_ attack on Konoha – he wasn't about to sit back and watch it happen all over again! Especially not when it was likely one of his comrades was spilling blood – his own or his enemy's –little more than thirty feet from him and Raidou was still fresh.

He landed in the outskirts of a clearing that had already seen one battle to the death in the last twenty-four hours, and steel rang in his ears as he halted in bewildered confusion. Most of the bodies in the clearing were from the first battle, but at least one of them was new, and even as he noticed this he watched the small, pink-haired apprentice of the Godaime slam a knee into one of her assailants' throat's with far less than her usual force. Less powerful or not, it was still enough to pulverize his windpipe and snap his neck, and the ANBU-clad – _Konoha_ ANBU-clad – shinobi dropped to join his companion on the forest floor even as his killer whirled away to block a katana strike with her bare forearms.

Raidou caught enough of a glimpse of the katana-wielder's mask to identify him as the Crow, Murakami Akito. He was one of those the Godaime had assigned a suicide mission, just before she'd kicked Raidou out of the unit. Miraculously, Akito had managed to survive. The Godaime hadn't seemed thrilled.

That, along with the fact that Haruno Sakura was the Godaime's apprentice, whom he knew to be a very capable, _loyal_ kunoichi he quite liked as well as quietly approved of, was enough to decide him, and he exploded into the melee with a flurry of fists and kunai. Haruno was clearly exhausted as well as badly injured, and, recalling what Ibiki had once mentioned about she being the only person who could heal herself, Raidou maneuvered the battle so that she was facing off against the other ANBU – Boar, he recognized now – whom he knew to be less dangerous.

Sakura spared the newcomer enough of a glance to identify him, then fixed his face in her mind with a "Friendly" label so she wouldn't inadvertently attack him. That done, she focused her attention on the kunai-wielding ANBU intent on sticking one or both of them in her throat. Three frantic minutes of twisting, jabbing, blocking, and ducking ensued, and Sakura managed to hook her fingers under his mask, catch his chin behind him mandible, and jerk straight up with an explosive _SNAP_ that tore his loser jaw half-off and shattered the vertebrae supporting his neck. His body fell to the ground and spasmed as his nerves misfired, and she spun around to find her unexpected ally plunging a kunai into his opponent's belly and tearing him open from navel to sternum. An impressive feat, considering the fresh corpse was shrouded in thick body armor.

She spread her wavering senses as far as she could and was mildly relieved to feel no hidden malice or killing intent anywhere in the vicinity. Granted, pain dulled her senses so she couldn't be positive, but she was reasonably certain, particularly considering that she had so few warm bodies she'd been forced to detail only one team to each side of the village.

With that confirmed, she let herself crumple to the ground and wrapped green-cloaked hands around her shins. She cajoled what little chakra she had left into stopping the bleeding, at least – she could deal with the rest of her injuries after she'd rested and recovered her strength.

Only then did she spare her rescuer any real attention, and recognition sparked in the back of her mind when his scarred face registered. "Raidou, isn't it?" she asked. If so, then he was one of the ANBU Tsunade had pulled out of the unit a few months ago. Her teacher hadn't explained why, but her comments about him had never been negative, so it couldn't have been for incompetence or inadequacy. Injury, perhaps? But there hadn't been any hospital records for him in the last few months…

"Namiashi Raidou, jounin," he confirmed, wiping his kunai clean and sliding it back into his holster. "You all right?" At her brief nod, he scowled. "What the hell is going on?" he demanded, turning to face her directly. "Why did I just kill one of _our_ ANBU, and why is Konoha up in smoke? Again? Who's attacking us this time? How-"

"You've been out on a mission, haven't you?" she interrupted suddenly, understanding dawning on her expression.

"Just got back from a two-month stint in Mizu no Kuni," he responded warily, eyeing her and wondering at the pain and sadness he saw lurking just behind her eyes. "Why?" Belatedly, he dug into his hip pouch and produced a roll of bandages he proceeded to wrap around her legs, gently but firmly moving her hands out of the way.

Sakura grimaced as she obeyed, instead turning her attention to her less damaged arms as she mulled over how on earth she was supposed to explain the last twenty-four hours. The last few minutes of it in particular, as she herself didn't have a clue.

With the shock of recent events still dulling her emotions, she'd been too tired to be angry when her "bodyguards" turned around and tried to kill her. But now that the battle was over and she'd had a chance to recuperate and absorb the enormity and reality of their betrayal – and there was no denying it _was_ betrayal; they hadn't been controlled in the slightest – their attacks were too smooth and coordinated for that – she _knew_ they were shinobi from her village, not _henge_'d infiltrators or _bunshin_, and they'd clearly planned the attack for when she was farthest from any conceivable aid – her infamous temper boiled to the surface.

Sakura snarled a curse when the unpleasant possibility of this being an ANBU-wide betrayal, and a cold chill of fear ran down her spine at the thought of the hundreds of weak, injured and defenseless civilians she'd left under their "protection." Not to mention the injured shinobi she'd thought safe in their care.

With that chilling possibility taunting her, she tugged her legs out of Raidou's hands and quickly fastened the bandages with two simple knots. Standing, she shunted the pain aside and dug a pair of blood pills and a soldier pill from her own hip ouch. She swallowed the latter and one of the former, then dropped to a knee at Akamaru's side to shove the other down his throat. "Forgive me, I'll have to come back for you," she whispered.

Glancing up at Raidou, who was eying her narrowly, she said shortly, "'What the hell is going on' is a long story that will have to wait, and you just killed one of our ANBU because they betrayed us. The rest of your questions will have to wait as well, because I have no idea if they acted alone or as a unit, and all of our injured and civilians are in their care." She smiled grimly when he paled noticeably.

Lurching once more to her feet, the borrowed chakra of the soldier pill coursing through her coils, the newly minted Hokage sprinted out of the clearing, Raidou close on her heels, leaving behind the corpse of a precious comrade and the barely living body of his most loyal companion to save her people from those who should have been their guardians.

-owari-


	8. To Leave a Legacy

A/N: WARNING: _To Leave a Legacy_ is darker than any of the others will be. If you're squeamish with torture, I'd advise agianst reading it. It's not explicitly mentioned, and doesn't acutally take place until after the story ends, but it's there, so be advised.

_Note: This one, "False Faith," and "Then There Was One" (forthcoming) are all directly related. "False Faith is first, "Then There Was One" almost immediately after, and this one takes place about a week and a half later, after Sakura and the surviving medics had cast Konoha Higi: Kuunohaka. _

_-((In regards to that, I've changed Ikione no Jutsu to the aforementioned; it means "Konoha Secret Technique: Empty Grave." "Seals" has been changed to reflect this))- _

-rhys

Sakura's Age: 16

Year of Reign: 1

Genre: Dark, Suspense

WARNING: Rated R

Vocab:

-Edo Tensei - Unholy Resurrection

-kinjutsu - forbidden technique

-(Konoha Higi) Kuunohaka - "Konoha Secret Technique: Empty Grave"

To Leave a Legacy

Sakura sat in the large chair behind the larger desk and stared blankly out at the ruin that was her village. Smoke still rose from the smoldering wreckage, though the last of the real fires had been put out just before she and the other medics (those who'd survived, in any case) had awoken from the jutsu-induced comas they'd been trapped in for a week. Work had begun on clearing away debris, and they were still finding bodies in every imaginable nook and cranny. Both tasks would likely last for months.

She absently processed the information, but her heart wasn't in it. She was just trying to distract herself from the upcoming confrontation, and she knew it.

But whether she liked it or not, (and she certainly didn't), she would have to focus her entire energies on the twenty-seven men and women in chakra-inhibiting cells in the basement of the Tower. Not just her mental and physical energies, either, she reminded herself with a grimace, and slipped an ashy-tasting soldier pill into her mouth. The chakra boost was refreshing, but also forced her to confront the reality of what was going to happen in this very office in less than fifteen minutes.

She turned her chair to scowl at the mostly empty desk, particularly the full tray of soldier pills that served as its only ornamentation. Much as she hated to admit it, she'd need them badly in the coming hours. The _Ikione_ hadn't taken any chakra to maintain (just a few years of her life), but it had taken a ridiculous amount to initiate, and she'd drained her reserves nearly dry in her battles prior to using it. Not just when she fought Orochimaru, either, but also to save Rock Lee's life and restore Hanabi and a handful of the other medics to functionality.

Because of the nature of the _Kuunohaka_, she hadn't been able to recover any of her chakra during that week, and though she'd had nearly another full week to rest and recover, her reserves were still low, and she'd be performing several high level, dangerous, and complex jutsu that evening.

Her scowl darkened at that last though, and she felt and irrational rush of anger at Tsunade. She had no idea what had been going through her mentor's mind when she'd taken it into her head to teach Sakura _Edo Tensei_. If that wasn't bad enough, she'd also steered her pupil into research that allowed her to discover the secret behind Yakushi Kabuto's ability to regenerate cells at a ridiculous rate. At the time, she hadn't thought anything of eagerly taking his work a step further and learning how to not simply regenerate cells but instead re-grow organs, even entire limbs, in a matter of hours – or minutes, if she felt like utterly and completely draining herself dry in the process. Tsunade had immediately declared the series of techniques she'd developed in the process kinjutsu, and confided in her student that she'd surpassed the Hokage's highest expectations – and her capabilities as a medic.

Now she would teach herself why most kinjutsu were named such not because they healed, but because they killed.

She hadn't been lying when she'd told Koharu, Neji, and Shikamaru that she had no idea how they would determine which of the ANBU they'd succeeded in apprehending were, in fact, loyal, and which were traitors. The only surviving experts in interrogation numbered among those she wanted to interrogate! Her chosen plan of action hadn't occurred to her until one of the civilian doctors had informed her that Sai's wounds had been so severe that he'd from them a bare hour before she'd initiated the _Kuunohaka_. Sakura still didn't (and doubted she ever would) know why that information had spurred her brain into collecting the necessary facts.

Unpleasant as they were, the facts were these: according to Tsunade's own admission, she was one of the greatest medics in Gokuni's history, able to keep a savaged body alive far longer than should be humanly (or ninja-ly) possible; for all she despised it, she knew how to cast _Edo Tensei_, as well as all the possible ways to manipulate it, and she wouldn't hesitate to use the lives of those she considered possible traitors as sacrifices for it; her kinjutsu would allow her to replace anything that had been lost (or removed); and if all else failed, she truly would execute each and every ANBU in her prison cells for treason.

Even Morino Ibiki.

She ground her teeth and drew a steadying breath, then rose and paced around to the front of the desk. The setting sun and smoky skies filled the otherwise empty office with a bloody, hazy light, and she tried not to think of how it made a disturbingly appropriate setting as she keyed her radio.

"Bring up the first two."

A scant moment later, the smoke of a translocation jutsu clogged the air, clearing almost instantly to reveal Nara Shikamaru and two ANBU - neither of whom she knew, to her private relief. Her friend and advisor had them both locked up tight in the _kagemane_, and the pouch on his hip was filled with soldier pills of his own.

Sakura ignored him in favor of studying the two shinobi he held captive, both men as naked as the day they were born, and none too thrilled about it. They glared at her darkly, but neither opened his moth to protest, and she met their glares with a deceptively passive gaze.

And then with flat eyes and a flatter voice, she announced their fates.

"I don't know either of you beyond what I can find in your files. I have no personal concept as to the extent of you loyalty to Konohagakure. I'll have to find out the hard way. To that end, understand this: I don't care how many bones I break, how many organs I will personally remove, because I can re-grow them. I don't care whether you live or die in this office tonight, because I can bring you back to life. And I don't care how many years you may want to waste with silence or false bravado, because I really only need to keep one of you alive; I can easily store your corpses for however long it takes, and I can revive you however many times it may require."

She stared at them unflinchingly. "And realize this; so long as Shikamaru holds you with the _kagemane_, you won't even be able to flinch, much les collapse or curl around yourself in an attempt to escape the pain you're going to endure."

Their glares now held a hint of uncertainty, and she raised her hand. Chakra flared about it, sharpening her fingertips to a knife's edge as she turned to her first victim. "Sanada Kentarou, did you plot with Goro Danzou to murder the Godaime and myself and destroy Konohagakure no Sato?"

He glared at her in stony silence, and she punched her flattened fist at his naked belly.

-owari-


End file.
